Conventionally, a military vehicle comprises a set of five or six road wheels on each side thereof over which a track or traction band runs. The suspension of each wheel is preferably independent. Along with the set of road wheels, the track system also comprises a sprocket wheel and an idler wheel, each of which is located at each end of the vehicle and is preferably located above the ground. More recently, tracked military vehicles, and other heavy tracked vehicles, have begun to use endless tracks made of rubber and/or other elastomeric material instead of metallic tracks.
In these recent track systems, the track generally comprises an outer surface comprising traction lugs and an inner surface comprising drive lugs and/or guide lugs (also referred to as guide horns). In these types of track, the drive lugs and the guide lugs, which are generally laterally spaced apart, generally define two or more wheel paths into which the road wheels are adapted to roll. In the majority of tracks, the wheel paths are generally flat and continuous in order to avoid undesirable vibrations.
Overtime, it has been discovered that the rubber of these tracks had a tendency to delaminate, particularly over the reinforcing elements embedded into the track rubber body and which are generally aligned with the lugs.
A general prior art solution for preventing delamination was to increase the overall thickness of the track. Yet, if this solution was possible for small or relatively thin tracks (e.g. snowmobile rubber tracks), for larger tracks, it is not appropriate.
As a matter of fact, large traction bands used on large and/or heavy vehicles are generally already at their maximum possible thickness. Any overall increase of thick would bring unwanted results.
Indeed, when rubber and/or elastomeric material bend, the bending of the material generates heat. On small tracks, the heat generation is relatively low and easily dissipated due to the small volume to surface ratio. However, on larger tracks, the heat generation is substantially high and less easily dissipated due to the higher volume to surface ratio. Moreover, since the hinge portions or areas of large tracks used on heavy vehicles are generally already at their maximum possible thickness, any addition of material at the hinge areas would most probably fatally increase the heat generation above the threshold above which failure of the material are likely to occur, thereby creating other problems.
Despite that the hinge areas are already at their maximum thickness, there is still a need to improve the durability and/or resistance to wear of rubber and/or elastomeric tracks that are preferably but not exclusively used on heavy vehicles.